Stockholm Water Front no 2-3 2017

In addition, the city is looking at
increasing the use of reused water.
Currently, about eight per cent of the
city’s water is reused as treated effluent
for non-potable purposes.
“We are going to be expanding water
reuse measures even further and we are
looking at ways in which reused waste
water can be used for potable purposes,”
the mayor says.
One important part of the WCWDM
has been to reduce the city’s water
waste. To date, 258 kilometres of water
pipes have been replaced to reduce water
leaks, there is an ongoing door-to-door
awareness campaign, 1 000 community
plumbers have been trained and
employed by the city.
A call centre that operates around the
clock gets some 500 water-related and
300 sewerage-related complaints per day.
Xanthea Limberg, a member of the
Mayoral Committee for informal settlements,
water and waste services, and
energy, explains further:
“We’ve got a water inspector unit that
responds to these complaints and if they
find a contravention of the water restrictions,
they can issue a fine or a notice to
appear in court. The city is constantly
measuring overall consumption so that
we get a sense of where in the city there is
an overuse of water – both in the formal,
informal and commercial sectors.”
The water inspection team also advises
property owners on how to detect leaks at
an early stage. Free plumbing is offered
to poorer households that can’t afford to
repair leaks.
In March, the city listed the streets with
the top 100 water consumers.
“We’ve discovered that a third of them
had high consumption because of leaks
they either didn’t know about, or hadn’t
felt the need to attend to. The following
months, consumption in all these areas
went down,” says Limberg.
There is a risk, she admits, that the
wealthy are trying to pay their way out
of the water restrictions. There is also a
blame game in which residents of formal
areas think there is wastage in the informal
areas, and the residents of informal
areas think that the formal areas are
consuming far too much water.
“However, our data shows that our
formal residential consumers use between
55 and 65 per cent of the water. The
informal areas which are home to 14 per
cent of the city’s population, consume
only 5 per cent of the water supply,”
Limberg says.
focus
One such area is Khayelitsha, a township
where some 500 000 people live in
formal and informal structures.
Among the residents is Phumeza
Gosani, who runs a daycare centre for
about 50 children. A plastic drum that
collects rainwater from her roof stands in
her small yard. But with no rain, nothing
fills up the tank. The area has been earmarked
to become a formal settlement
with indoor water and sewerage facilities.
Currently, each plot has outdoor
plumbing, a sink and an outdoor toilet.
However, the water is sometimes cut off
for a full day.
“The municipality never gives a warning.
When there is no water at home we
have to collect it from a communal tap
in the informal settlement neighbouring
our community,” she says.
Sometimes when water is cut off the
city circulates water trucks in the area
and she does, occasionally, get water
warnings on her phone.
“With the drought, there is talk about
us buying bottled water, but people out
here can’t afford it. Another thing, if we
report a broken pipe it takes too long
before someone comes to fix it. Despite
the drought, we go about our normal
business; we don’t have much in the first
place,” Gosani says.
Rameez Solomons collecting water for people in his neighbourhood who don’t have transport.
WATERFRONT # 2–3 | JULY 2017
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